


Awkward

by annie_mae (teenagewristband)



Series: First Impressions [2]
Category: Grimm (TV)
Genre: Episode Related, M/M, Spoiler 2x02
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-22
Updated: 2012-08-22
Packaged: 2017-11-12 16:02:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,355
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/493074
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/teenagewristband/pseuds/annie_mae
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It just gets worse...and then better.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Awkward

**Author's Note:**

> This could work as a stand alone probably or a sequel to First Impressions. Spoilerish for 2x02. Kelly Burkhardt continues to be awesome.

“I don't really understand this relationship. It doesn't make any sense.”

“Maybe you don't have to,” Monroe mutters under his breath. Only Nick's mother fixes him with such a a skin flaying look Monroe realizes that apparently it wasn't under his breath enough. Which is okay. It's completely in keeping with this being the most awkward meal anyone has ever had in the history of eating. It's about way more than his having burnt dinner. He managed to scrape enough not burnt parts together that his significant other's mom got a mostly edible meal. He'd sort of vamped with a baby romaine salad to fill out the plate. So no harm, no foul there. 

It has everything to do with Nick getting a phone call he had to take a half hour into a dinner where he'd been carrying most of the conversational burden. One of the things about not seeing your mom since you were a kid, there were a lot of anecdotes to choose from. The phone call required that Nick leave immediately to meet Hank at a crime scene tied to an ongoing, unfortunately non-wesen related, case. Monroe has no doubt that if there were wesen involved Nick's mom would have found a way to ride shotgun. 

“I'll be back as soon as I can.” 

The traitorous grimm had kissed Monroe on the cheek as Monroe hissed as quietly as he could, _Man, not in front of your mother._ He'd had also kissed his mother on the cheek before disappearing into the Portland night. Bastard. 

Mother Grimm's comments are the first words spoken in the twenty minutes since Nick's been gone. Twenty minutes in which Monroe has had more wine than he intended. In addition to the wine, he'd had when Nick was at the table doing most of the talking. Now Monroe can add can't hold his liquor to the list of transgressions to be held against him.

“I beg your pardon?” 

Monroe knows he has a foot and a half on his de facto mother-in-law, but when she stiffens her back and crosses her arms Monroe can't help, but feel dwarved. In for a penny, in for a pound. He straightens tall in his own chair.

“After his aunt dropped the grimm bomb on him and you know died...,” Monroe can feel the skin flaying glare all over his face. She's been at the grimm thing longer than Nick, skin flaying might actually be in her arsenal. “Um, my condolences. Sincerely. But she kind of left him high and dry. A babe in the woods, without kith or kin. Uh, so to speak. And I...that's what we have in common. My family's not exactly jumping for joy that I'm a wieder blutbad. And we just...He let's me be who I am. I try to do the same for him.” 

Monroe's mostly been looking at his plate, his wine glass, fidgeting with his fork, but he makes sure to hold Mrs. Burkhardt's gaze for this. “I have his back. I've had it for almost a year. I wouldn't do anything to hurt him.”

 

Nick comes back two hours later and Monroe smells McDonald's on him. “Everything okay,” Nick asks as he slides his hand into the hair at the nape of Monroe's neck, tugs gently. 

“I've got all my skin still, so yeah.”

“Why wouldn't you have your skin?”

“Why do you smell like McDonald's?” 

“Hank's treat. I couldn't say no.”

“Uh huh. How long were you at the crime scene exactly?”

“Um...”

_“Nick.”_

“Fear has to be faced head on right? As long as I was here you weren't going to actually talk to her.”

“Bastard.”

“But everything's fine now? Right?”

“I feel reasonably certain your mother won't be stabbing me in pilates, yes.”

“See, all's well that ends well.”

“For me and Mother Grimm maybe. Not so much for you dude.”

“What do you mean?” Nick nuzzles the back of his neck, slides his hand under the sweater Monroe didn't realize was mis-buttoned until ten minutes after Mother Grimm was gone. Monroe stays focused. 

“No more naked games until your mother leaves town.”

“You've got to be kidding. I have no idea how much longer she's going to be here.” 

“Perhaps you should have thought of that before you went to McDonald's.”

“Monroe? Seriously?”

Monroe gathers his resolve, stops Nick's hand from stroking across his belly. 

“You can come for dinner tomorrow. I'm still willing to feed you.”

Nick hesitates. Monroe turns so that their bodies align toe to hip to chest. He loosens his resolve enough to lay a deep, wet one on the grimm. The kind of kiss that would generally be followed up by naked games against the center island butcher block. As he feels the resolve start to slip completely, Monroe steps away. 

“Goodnight Nick.” 

Nick tries his best puppy dog expression, to no avail. Once his front door clicks safely closed and is deadbolted, Monroe allows a wide grin to spread across his face. Then he laughs until tears are streaming down his cheeks. 

After he'd made his declaration to Nick's mother, she'd scowled at him, though Monroe is coming to believe that is just her natural expression, she'd scowled and said, “I don't understand this relationship...but maybe I don't have to.”

Monroe recognized that for the blessing it was. “Thank you.” She either smiled or grimaced at him. He couldn't really tell the difference. “I'm leaving first thing in the morning. It was interesting to meet you Monroe.” And that was the end of dinner. He let her show herself to the door.

An hour after sending Nick home with blue balls, Monroe's cell buzzes. The text reads, _I'll be coming over for a lot more than dinner._

 

Kelly Burkhardt watches the smile that flits across her son's face as he slides his cell phone back into his pocket. She watches as the lines of tension around his eyes, around his mouth smooth out. She has regrets. All the firsts she missed. The hurts she wasn't around to nurse him through. His first love, his first heartbreak. But she is here now. She's gotten to fight side by side with her son. See the grimm he's become without the family help she had. Better than both she and Marie were in a lot of ways. A new kind of grimm who has figured out how to bring his loved one along. She missed his first love, but she is glad to be around to see his genuine love. 

“So your partner...,” she tilts her head to indicate the phone.

“Hank is my partner. Monroe is...” Her son shrugs. “He's, uh mine. Monroe is mine.” The smile is a little sheepish. A smile she remembers from long ago. There's a fierce resolve in his eyes. She remembers that as well.

“I was with someone when Aunt Marie told me, someone else. I didn't know what to do. I meet people every day who are lying about something. And that was me last year. Lying and covering up. Then a siegbarste attacked me in the house. Scared her, scared me. But I couldn't tell her the truth. I couldn't make reassurances that it wouldn't happen again. So there was a trial separation, that rolled into a permanent one. I can tell him the truth, always. I don't know what I would do without him.”

“My sweet baby boy,” Kelly murmurs as she steps towards him to smooth back the hair that doesn't need smoothing. “I am so very proud of you.” Kelly Burkhardt has spent so much time in the shadows, touching people without violence no longer comes naturally, but this is her son. She's missed a lifetime. The hug is awkward, but not unwelcome. 

“Do you need me to drive you to the station in the morning,” his voice is scratchy with emotion. Kelly takes a step back, ignores the prickle in her own eyes. “It's better that I go alone. We've been fortunate so far. We shouldn't push our luck.”

"I love you mom."

"I love you to Nick."

Fin


End file.
